How to Build a Daily Health Schedule: Sourced Timing

Where do you start?

Food, movement, sleep, alcohol and stress all affect visceral fat. Start small and add one change at a time.

Layne Norton says to start smaller than you think. For someone starting from nothing, he says three active days a week you will keep beats five you will not.

Pick one moment below, add the habit that fits it, and add the next when that one feels easy. The sections follow your day in order.

What do you do when you wake up?

• Michael Breus says his number one sleep tip is to wake up at the same time seven days a week.
• Michael Breus tells his patients to drink water first, then have no caffeine for the first 90 minutes they are awake. Thomas DeLauer says to push your first real cup to about 30 to 60 minutes after waking. In an earlier video (2024) he said not to worry about waiting.
• A routine to try: get some daylight outside soon after you wake.
• Andrew Huberman says that in the first 30 minutes after waking, you should get outside in the sunlight, move and drink water.

More on the first cup: how long after waking to have coffee.

What goes with your first meal?

• Benjamin Bikman says to focus on protein, and not to fear the fat that comes with it, because protein and fat together help you feel full.
• Thomas DeLauer says to take vitamin D3 and K2 together, with some fat, such as with eggs or coffee with fat.
• Take omega-3 with a meal. Thomas DeLauer suggests fish oil alongside a carb meal like rice.
• Darren Candow says to take creatine every day, and that morning, evening or during a workout all work.

Each has its own page: vitamin D, fish oil and creatine.

What do you do around your biggest meal?

• Jessie Inchauspé says to eat vegetables first, then protein and fat, then starches and sugars. Same meal, smaller glucose spike.
• A short walk after your biggest meal lowers the blood sugar rise from that meal. Even a minute or two of moving helps.
• Andrew Huberman says five to 10 minutes of walking after a meal flattens the blood sugar peak, so you get fewer energy crashes.
• Thomas DeLauer described a 2023 meta-analysis of eight trials in which walking after a meal lowered blood sugar after the meal more than walking before it or doing nothing.

If you take insulin or another medicine that can cause low blood sugar, ask your doctor how extra activity fits in.

If you haven't been active for a while, or you have a heart, joint or blood pressure condition, speak to your doctor first.

More: walking after meals and eat vegetables first.

When should your last caffeine be?

Have your last caffeine early in the afternoon, well before bed.

Michael Breus says to stop coffee by about 2 pm. He says caffeine has a half-life of six to eight hours.

More: best time to have caffeine.

What do you do in the evening?

• Stop eating about 3 hours before bed. If you need something late, keep it light.
• Michael Breus says to stop alcohol, like food, about three hours before bed.
• Andrew Huberman says no screens in the last 30 minutes before sleep, and to dim your phone.
• Matthew Walker gives seven to nine hours of sleep as the range, with seven as the minimum.

If you take insulin or another diabetes medicine, are pregnant, or have had an eating disorder, don't set food rules without your doctor.

More: when to stop eating before bed and sleep and visceral fat.

What about supplements with no sourced time?

We do not have a sourced time for magnesium, zinc, collagen or probiotics, so Midline says follow the label.

Thomas DeLauer says to take vitamin K2 with your vitamin D, at a meal with fat. Magnesium is optional, and experts disagree on it. Follow the label for both.

Prefer third-party tested supplements, like NSF certified. You cannot always be sure what is in a bottle. A seal tells you what is in it, not whether it works.

Supplements sold to fix your gut and speed up weight loss do too little to matter. Habits come first.

Who should check first?

Follow the label. If you take any medicine, are pregnant or breastfeeding, or have a kidney or liver condition, check with your pharmacist or doctor first.

Check with your pharmacist or doctor about supplements if you take medication.

Where does Midline fit?

Midline puts these habits and your supplements on one daily schedule, with a tick for each. It can't measure visceral fat.

The simplest start is the quick middle check. For the supplements alone, see best time to take supplements.